Firearm.



WISTER.

FIREARM. APPLICATION FILED MAR. I5. 1916.

Patented J une 13, 1916.

JONES WISTEB, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

FIREARM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 13, 1'916.

Application filed March 15, 1916. Serial No. 84,359.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it lmown that I, J oNEs WISTER, a citizen of the United States, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Firearms, of which the following is a specification.

My inventionrelates particularly to fire arms used in trench warfare. I

While theinven'tion-is especially adapted for use in connection with small arms, such as rifles,'it can be used in connection with certain types of cannon without departing from the essential features of the invention.

One object of the invention is to so construct a fire arm that it can be used in a trenchwith the aid of a periscope without exposing the soldier to the fire of the enemy. This object Iattain by curving the outer end of the barrel so as to deflect the projectile in a direction at an angle to the longitudinal line of the fire arm.

A further object of the invention is to so design the curved portion of the fire arm that it-will provide suflicient clearance ,to allow the projectile to pass freely around the curve.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1, is a side view of the rifle illustrating my invention; Fig. 2', is an enlarged sectional view of the muzzle end of the rifle, showing the curved attachment; Fig. 3, is a transverse sectional view on the line aa, Fig. 2; Fig. 4, is a transverse sectional view on the line b-b, Fig. 2; Fig. 5, is a-view of the muzzle end of the curved section of the barrel; and Fig. 6, is a perspective view of the curved section.

, Referring to the drawings, 1 is the stock of an ordinary rifle.

2 is the barrel and 3 is thehammer, which can be of any ordinary standard type, as the invention only relates to the muzzle end of the rifle. 7 I

The muzzle endA of the, barrel of the rifle has a screw thread thereon, in the present instance, as shown clearly in Fig.2.

5 is a curved section threaded at one end- I 6 to screw onto the end 4: of the barrel 2 and has amuzzle 7 of substantially the same 9 diameter as the interior diameter of the barrel 2 and, in the present instance, is at right an les to the barrel.

etween the lines w-w the walls of the *-muzzle end;of the extension 5'are parallel with the cente i line 3 which is at right angles to the line 2 of the barrel, but the terior'of the curved section 5 from the line a:

to the line 1), in the present'instance, gradually increases from both lines a; and 'v to the center line w. I prefer to make this curved portlon of the extension 5 oblong in cross sectlon, as clearly shown in the enlarged View, Fig. 4, the width'of the section being a trifle greater than the width of the interior of the barrel. a

By this construction the projectile will freely pass through the curved section with out binding, but there will be a certain amount of frictional resistance, due to the projectilecoming in contact withthe outer portion bf the curved wall, but this will not materially decrease the velocity of the prov j'ectile', and, in the present instance,this portion of the wall is increased in thickness as shown.

The projectile I prefer to use is a round ball which fits the barrel, or .a shell having a series of smaller balls known as buck shot, although an elongated bullet can be used and when such a bullet is used the diameter of the curved portion of the extension will have to be inci'eased accordingly and this will depend entirely upon the length of the bullet.

By making the section detachable the rifle can be used as .an ordinary rifle with a straight barrel and when used in trench warfare the attachment can be secured 1n 7 7 place very readily.

I preferably combine a perisco e 8 with this rifle and this periscope can be detachably secured to the barrel of the rifle by clamps 9. At the upper end of the periscope is a mirror 10 arranged at an angle of forty-five'degrees to the longitudinal line. of the periscope and at the lower end is a mirror 11, which is also arranged at an angle of forty-five degrees to the longitudinal line of the periscope, so that when the rifle is discharged it can be aimed correctly without the user being exposed to the enemys. fire.

As hereinbefore stated, while the invention is particularly adapted foruse in connection with rifles, it canjb'e used with certain types of machine guns and with some types of cannon where it is desired to throw a charge a given distance. 7

A gun of this type is not intended tobe used for long distance firing as it is partlcularly adapted for trench Warfare, where the trenches of the/combatants are comp aratively close together, the'proximity of the firing lines preventing a soldier taking accurate aim with an ordinary rifle unless exposed to the fire of the opposing party, but

with my improvement accurate aim can be 1. A fire arm having a barrel with a" curved muzzle end, the bore of the curved section being greater in diameter than the bore of the straight portion of the barrel and the bore at the muzzle end-of the curved section. 2. The comblnation in a mile, of a barrel;

a curved extension secured to the muzzle end of the barrel, the muzzle end ofthe extension being parallel for a given distance with a line at right angles to the longitudinal line of the barrel and the curved portion between this muzzle end and the straight portion, which alines with the barrel, being of a greater diameter than the barrel and the muzzle end of the attachment.

3. A curved section adapted to' be secured to the barrel of a fire arm, said section being the same. bore as the barrel of the fire arm at both ends, and greater in diameter midway between the ends, the bore tapering toward each end.

JONES WISTER. 

